The global maritime charity Stella Maris is organising a series of new workshops to help ship workers and port authorities identify seafarers enslaved on the high seas.
Tim Hill, CEO of Stella Maris told The Tablet: “There is a growing awareness among our chaplains of this issue affecting seafarers. Slavery at sea can be invisible, and more worryingly, sometimes those who are being exploited do not realise they are or are afraid to speak out.”
Every year, Stella Maris’s 1,000 chaplains and ship visitors visit 70,000 vessels in 353 ports worldwide. It is the largest ship-visiting charity in the world.
On Monday, the charity held its first workshop on the theme of identifying and helping enslaved seafarers in Liverpool.
Tell-tale signs a seafarer is enslaved or exploited may include a captain trying to hide individual crew members from port authorities or ship visitors. Other indications can include crew members displaying bruises, appearing anxious, sheepish or showing signs of neglect, including lack of sleep.
The 40 participants in the workshop included members of the city’s Peel Ports maritime organisations plus representatives of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
They heard a UN advisor share her experience of being sold by her stepfather into slavery aged seven, and how she eventually escaped. Further information was given on how to access good support networks to aid seafarers escaping slavery.
Of the 100,000 people estimated to be slaves in the UK, seafarers, who endure prolonged, often isolated periods away from home, are especially vulnerable to exploitation.
They may incur debt servitude, be obliged to pay for seeking work, have their pay withheld and labour rights abused. Some are forced to work long hours in unsafe, unhygienic conditions on little sleep and receiving poor nutrition.
Further workshops are now planned in Bristol, Hull, Glasgow, Portsmouth and Belfast.
Funded by the Department of Transport through the Merchant Navy Welfare board, the workshops are designed for front-line port staff, including ship visitors and operators, port authorities, law enforcement agencies, and others in regular contact with seafarers.
More details are available on the Stella Maris website.
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